A cohesive storyline or if it makes you cry? Sometimes the personal success of a Pixar movie doesn’t always rely on the former, with many taking the latter as enough of a justification for its existence. In such a case, Elio may be enough of a charming win for family audiences who could find themselves welling up the domestic themes present throughout Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina‘s safe adventure outing.
For others, taking previous Pixar offerings into account, Elio is far more a mid-tier effort, with its boy-meets-alien story a little more convoluted than it needs to be. At 98 minutes, Elio doesn’t have too much fat on its bones when it comes to setting up its narrative, informing us immediately that its titular character (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) has recently lost both his parents and is now in the care of his aunt, Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an aspiring astronaut working as an orbital analyst at a military base. She’s overwhelmed, to say the least, but she’s trying her best, and Elio, despite being interested in alien life and outer space, isn’t connecting with her and, therefore, wants to be abducted by extraterrestrial lifeforms to take him away from his lonely existence on Earth.
Through plot conveniences that aren’t worth pulling apart, Elio gets his wish through a direct message that comes from the Communiverse, a place where aliens of all kinds bring knowledge from their own worlds to share with others. They mistake Elio as the leader of Earth (though he certainly makes them believe he holds such a position) and, for the first few moments of his visit to the colourful, candy-coated alien landscape they call home, he’s in something of a blissful state as he believes he’s found his true calling.
Of course, being thought of as the leader of Earth means he’s asked to make some specific moves in the negotiating space, and when Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), a bulky, worm-like alien warlord, threatens the Communiverse, Elio is called upon to broke a deal of peace. It’s all easier said than done, and as much as the film seems to suggest it could lean into an action temperament, it introduces the delightful Glordon (Remy Edgerly), Lord Grigon’s perky, very non-confrontational son, and soon Elio, as a film, adopts a buddy-comedy mentality that should absolutely tickle the younger viewers who have ever dreamt of such wild abandon with their best friend – whatever the species.
Though it indulges in the relationship between Elio and Glordon, the film is still very much commenting on the dynamics between parents and their children and how, despite some misunderstandings, the love will always remain. Elio feeling like he’s a burden to Olga, and Glordon not wanting to disappoint his more aggressively-minded father are the two main strands that the Julia Cho–Mark Hammer–Mike Jones-penned script follows. Whilst the two narratives certainly can work parallel to one another, Elio feels a little disjointed and like it can’t entirely settle on what hook it wants to adhere to; this mentality does also mean the film never feels entirely predictable though.
The film coming together as it does though feels like less of a surprise when it’s taken into account that Molina’s original idea, a personal coming-of-age story about youthful alienation, which was based around his own childhood growing up at a military base and eventual enrollment at the California Institute of the Arts, was ultimately let go. Additionally, America Ferrera, originally announced in 2022 as the voice of Olga, intended as Elio’s mother, was reshuffled as a character and replaced by Saldaña.
Movies have overcome such behind-the-scenes retools before, and it’s difficult to know what the original iteration would’ve been off speculation alone, but it does appear it would have had a more personal layering to it. Elio, as it stands now, certainly has an opening for audiences to find their way in, but the relationships built and the alien world it presents, as well as Elio’s own standing on Earth, feel like they needed more fleshing out than what we are able to see here.
Whilst Elio had the potential to be more than what it is, there’s no denying it’s still an enjoyable adventure outing, with a heartwarming message on the importance of the bond between parents and their children. It has an enchanting, Saturday morning fun-ness to it all that keeps it consistently entertaining, but Elio‘s zaniness can only shadow so much before its flaws in the presence of the Pixar back catalogue.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Elio is now screening in Australian theatres.
